Zambia Govt Accused of Orchestrating Divisions in Opposition

A senior UPND member, Douglas Siakalima, has blamed the Patriotic Front (PF) government of causing the confusion and turmoil that has continued to rock opposition MMD.

Mr. Siakalima said that the (PF) government should not be spared for creating the prevailing wrangles in the MMD because of its determination to swallow the former ruling party.

He said that President Sata was in a hurry to make Zambia a one party state because he was the son of the one party system of governance under the UNIP era where tactics of intimidation, harassment and violence were the order of the day.

Mr. Siakalima warned that if the former ruling party allowed itself to be infiltrated by the PF, it will certainly go down just like other small parties whose leaders have been hijacked by the PF.

“President Sata and the PF are using intimidation and arrests to bring strong parties like MMD down. He did it with the UPND and people thought that it will end with UPND but have you seen where it is going? They want to extend it to the MMD such that they instil fear in the former ruling party not to challenge them in their corruption and that is how dictatorial they are,” he said.

Mr. Siakalima has since encouraged the MMD party and its leadership to stay strong and remain united, “I know it is strange for them to be in the opposition after being in the ruling party for 20 years. But they can’t fall now because they have only been in the opposition for less than a year and should learn from other opposition parties like UPND who have endured being in the opposition for over 14 years now.”

“It is clear that the PF government has already lost touch with the people and they are definitely going to be out of power in 2016. So it is worth being strong and united in the opposition. People of Zambia want a strong voice to challenge the PF and it is not right for the MMD to give up.”